How Do Geographical Imaginaries Shape Academic Migration to Global Centres and Peripheries?

Abstract

The paper discusses the geographical imaginaries framing and shaping the migration decision-making process in the case of academics. Based on two qualitative studies focused on international academics employed in Poland (100 individual in-depth interviews) and Polish-born academics in the UK and the US (40 interviews), it demonstrates how the objective working conditions and common-sense knowledge translate into the imaginaries of higher education systems. The article suggests that vivid and positive imaginaries of Western higher education (“West is Best” narrative) contrast with blurred and ambiguous imaginaries of Poland, a semi-peripheral country (“in-between” narrative). The analysis of life and career stories problematises two common assumptions on academic migration. The first one is that “science has no nationality”. It is very difficult to defend it as some academics had a strong sense of place. The second one is the idealised and romanticised image of the West. The analysis suggests that the narrative of Western superiority is, at least partially, inadequate because international academics, over the years, start to re-work their imaginaries. The paper concludes with broader implications of geographical imaginaries for the power inequalities in global academia.